TechyDad

Aloha Friday: Phrase Pet Peeves

February 10, 2012 TechyDad Aloha Friday

A couple of months ago, I began noticed something that B said "It is what it is" a lot. To be fair, she probably wasn’t saying it *that* much, but, after I noticed the phrase, my brain would note every instance of it. It wasn’t only B, though. I began to note other people saying it. It seemed that everyone was saying "It is what it is" all the time. The more I noticed it, the more the saying annoyed me. I can’t explain why it annoys me, it just does.

This isn’t the first saying to draw my ire. Years back, "Not!" was the catchphrase bandwagon to be on. I didn’t join in, though. In fact, I would cringe a bit inside every time someone said "Not!" ("Cool beans" also, but that didn’t seem to be uttered as often.)

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What phrases annoy you?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #125

Your Shape Fitness Evolved: Week 2 Diary and Giveaway

February 9, 2012 TechyDad Fitness, Games, Giveaway, Health, Video Games

This week, I tried out Your Shape Fitness Evolved’s Glutes, Toning, Abs, Arms, and Sports preparation workouts.

On Saturday, I burned 110 calories. First, I worked out my glutes with some squats and kicks (10 calories). Next, I moved into pushups to work out my arms and burn 12 more calories. After this, I worked my abs out with some crunches (8 calories). Then, it was time for some toning. I had no weights, so I just ran through the motions. Still, I burned 16 calories.

So far, it seemed like an easy workout. Then came Sports Preparation: Football Basic Preparation. Instead of 2 groupings of 3 workouts, I had to run through 6 sessions of 3 workouts! At the end, I had burned 64 calories. Yes, this one selection burned more calories than all of the other workouts combined.

On Tuesday, I decided to keep better track of the names of the workouts. First up was Arms 100% (B). This entailed two reps each of Knee push ups, slow mountain climbs, and triceps knee pushups and burned 25 calories. Next was Abs 100% (B). This put me through two reps of slow mountain climbs, up & down planks, and fast mountain climbs. I burned 13 calories and learned a valuable lesson. Don’t do Abs right after Arms. Ow, my back!

Up next was Toning: Build Strength (B). This burned 18 calories by working me through 4 reps of bicep combo lunges and 2 reps of dumbbell squats. Then came Glutes: 100% (B) and 21 more calories were burned. This had me perform 4 reps of dumbbell knee-up side-kicks and 2 reps of dumbbell squats.

Then it was time for Sports Preparation. This time I selected Soccer Basic Preparation. I burned 55 calories by running through two reps each of power jogging, dynamic leg curls, knee-up punches, dumbbell step squats, curtsy lunge raises, balance skating, jumping jack punches, plyo leg curls, and jab knee-ups. If that seems like a lot of exercises, it was! All totaled, I burned 132 calories this day.

Finally, on Wednesday, I burned 219 calories. How did I exceed my calories burned from the two previous days? Well, first I ran through Glutes: 100% (C). This burned 19 calories with 2 reps of braced squats, dumbbell sumo squats, and lunges. Then, I worked on Arms: 100% (C). This 38 calories burning workout consisted of 2 reps of Push ups, fast mountain climbs, and triceps knee push-ups. Next up was Toning: Build Strength (C). I burned 15 calories with 4 reps of reverse fly lunges and 2 reps of triceps squats. Next, I tried the Abs: 100% (C) and burned 22 calories with the supported leg stretch, roll up & down, pulse crunch, up & down plank, slow mountain climb, and fast mountain climb.

If you are counting, you’ll realize this only totals 94 calories. The other 125 calories came from Sports Preparation: Soccer Cardio & Endurance. Yes, one hundred twenty five calories! Instead of the usual 6 sessions of 3 workouts, this had 7 sessions of 3 workouts: Jumping jack punch, triple run punch, front kick punch, slide jump, high knees run, plyo leg curl, power skate, sumo knee lift, x-jog, sprint jump, sumo jump, sprint jump, muscle man twist, dumbbell squat, muscle man twist, single-leg squat, sumo squat, single-leg squat, push-up, up & down plank, and fast mountain climb. Yes, I was ready to collapse after all of this.

Giveaway

You could win a copy of Your Shape Fitness Evolved. Simply post a comment to this blog post. When my five week series is finished, one commenter from across the five posts will win a copy of the game from Ubisoft.

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of Your Shape Fitness Evolved by Ubisoft and financially compensated for this Clever Girls Collective, Inc. campaign. In addition, I was loaned an XBox 360 and Kinect for the duration of the campaign. The opinions expressed above, however, are my own.

Count Down To Disney Social Media Fun

February 8, 2012 TechyDad Disney, DisneySMMoms

Both of my boys love counting. The little guy will count how many toys he has. The big kid will add, subtract, and multiply numbers to find out what the result is. Something we all love counting, though, are days until a Disney World trip.

Since we’ll be going to DisneySMMoms this April, we’re counting down the days. Of course, we need some kind of guide so I devised this calendar to help us out. I plan on having my boys take turns crossing the days off so they can count down how many days are left until it’s Mickey Time.

Yes, that is a Disney font for the countdown numbers. Here’s a high quality PDF if you’re going to DisneySMMoms also and need some help counting down the days until Disney Social Media Fun.

How do you have your kids count down to special events?

Disclaimer: The "Mouse Clock" image above is based off of "Clock" from OpenClipArt.org.

Touching Without Ever Meeting

February 7, 2012 TechyDad Internet, Life, Social Media

You may or may not have heard, but Susan N (aka WhyMommy) passed away yesterday. She had been battling inflammatory breast cancer. This aggressive form of cancer doesn’t show up with the lump that other forms of breast cancer have. She batted this cancer for years, but unfortunately lost her battle. She left behind her husband and two young boys (4 and 6).

Thanks to the Internet, though, she has touched the hearts of people all over the world. People who never met her, who only knew her through blog posts and Twitter updates, felt the pain of her passing. When I got home yesterday, I saw a tweet about her passing and hugged B as she cried.

In a way, it’s weird to feel such sorrow over the death of someone we’ve never met. Yet, this is the power of the Internet in general and social media in particular. People can find other people with similar interests and/or situations no matter where those people may be. Once those people find each other, they can converse, aid each other, or perhaps just be sounding boards. In many different ways, they can touch people’s lives way beyond their physical reach.

Where we live, we don’t have too many close, face-to-face friends to talk to in person. I can’t really head out to see "the guys" and discuss marriage, parenting, life, the Universe, and everything. However, by simply opening up my favorite Twitter application, I can reach hundreds of dads and moms with questions ranging from the mundane to the vitally important. I can share sorrows and joys and form friendships. These friendships aren’t any less real because I’ve never greeted the person face to face. In many ways, they are stronger since you know that, where ever you are, your friends are a smartphone or computer away.

So, while we mourn Susan/WhyMommy’s passing, let’s celebrate our friends and family online. Consider this a great, big virtual hug to you, dear readers. Now go pass it on to another online friend.

Disclaimer: The "Heart-World" image above is derived from two images on OpenClipArt.org: Heart Gloss 3 and Glossy Globe.

My Typical, Non-Stereotypical Super Bowl Sunday

February 6, 2012 TechyDad Life

When you think of what a guy does on Super Bowl Sunday, you get a certain mental image. He would prepare some snack foods for the big game, stock up on last minute necessities for the big game, and then watch the big game. Basically, his entire day will revolve around the football game. That’s the stereotype, but my “Super Bowl Sunday” was anything but stereotypical.

The day began, as any Sunday would, with the boys waking up while B and I were still trying to sleep. They got themselves into the living room and began playing. After, I dragged myself out of bed to get them breakfast, NHL began to complain about being cold. Despite being wrapped up in my Slanket and a second blanket, he was still cold. I noticed that the air *did* seem unusually chilly. A quick check of the thermostat confirmed that something was wrong. While it was set to set to 63°, it read 59°!

I checked the boiler and noticed that the pilot was out. When I tried to re-light it, it wouldn’t stay lit. I knew, then, what the problem likely was: a bad Thermocouple. We had just replaced it two or three weeks ago, but it was the most likely culprit. For those who don’t know, the thermocouple is a small sensor that tells the boiler or furnace whether the pilot is still lit. If the pilot goes out, the thermocouple makes sure that the gas is automatically turned off so the house won’t explode. Very nice feature, except that it tends to fail often for us and, when it fails, the gas turns off unexpectedly.

What should have been a normal get-NHL-ready-for-Hebrew-School Sunday morning turned into a get-everyone-out-the-door-so-I-could-fix-the-heat Sunday. A couple trips to Home Depot later (my fault for getting the wrong length thermocouple) and we had heat again.

Then, it was time for some shopping. But I wasn’t on the hunt for chips and dip, but for ingredients to use for the week’s dinners. After picking up NHL from Hebrew school, returning home, and feeding everyone lunch, I caught the baking bug. Very soon, I had made brownies for everyone. (Part of my motivation may have been that the brownie mix had reached its “Best By” date and I wanted to bake the mix and not toss it.) I also took some time to sew some buttons back on a few items of clothes that needed it.

Once the brownies were done, the baking bug was out of my system but the cleaning bug took over. I trotted out the vacuum cleaner and became determined to make it reach into crevices that are easily overlooked during our usual house cleaning. By the time I finished with that, it was time to start making dinner: Black bean soup with diced tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, and diced zucchini.

Baking, cooking, sewing, vacuuming, and grocery shopping. This definitely wasn’t your stereotypical “guy’s Super Bowl Sunday.” Then again, I pride myself on being anything but stereotypical.

Disclaimer: The image above is based on “Football” and “No-sign” from OpenClipArt.org.

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